This image shows the dance of the creative process between the painting studio and the print studio. Invariably, when I ‘find' and want to explore a image, it is investigated and developed in more than one medium through the initial drawing, which is either kick started on the hoof as I record my surroundings in a pocket book, or made as a way of breaking down the flattened out surface of a photograph taken on my cell phone.
The etching shows an artist stepping out of her studio on a dark night. Plants not seen properly in the gloaming are triffid like and silhouetted in phosphorescent blues and greens. The studio window warm and welcoming in the etching, hinting that work is in the making, is nullified in the painting. I wanted to make a painting about the bravery of the artist somehow- that they have to conjure something out of nothing, often from the dark recesses of their subconscious. In Night Garden, she has nothing to go on but what she takes into the studio herself, while the world sleeps around her. - TH
A photograph taken by the artist of Holly Young's studio near Thorpness which kick started this etching.